Jay C. Batzner (b. 1974) is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches music composition and technology courses as well as coordinates the composition program. In his first year, Jay received two prestigious grants: one to create collaborative works with visual artist Carla Poindexter and the second to initiate electroacoustic music concerts in Orlando. Prior to this position, Jay was an active adjunct professor at several colleges in the Kansas City area while he completed his D.M.A. in Composition at the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory. While at UMKC, Jay received honors including a Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship and a Dean's Doctoral Scholar Fellowship.
Jay's music ranges from instrumental chamber works to electroacoustic compositions. He has participated in numerous national and international festivals including the Wellesley Composers Conference and the International Young Composers' Meeting in the Netherlands. His music is published by Unsafe Bull Music and has been recorded on the Capstone and Vox Novus labels. Jay is a frequent contributor to the new music website Sequenza21.com and a founding member of the composers organization The Collected.
Jay is a sci-fi geek, an amateur banjoist, a home brewer, and juggler.
|
1/02/2008
Resolutions
I really don't have any. Is that bad? I have some goals, but when don't I? I know one resolution: to stop saying that I'm going to orchestrate/arrange a piece of mine for another ensemble. I've been saying that about my piano quartet, my concerto for 2 pianos, my wind ensemble piece, my work for tenor and orchestra, my wind quintet, and my piano trio on and off for the last 3 years. Does it ever get done? No. Should I do it? Maybe. Am I going to? Probably not.
I need to leave those things well enough alone in their respective crypts and, when I jones to write a large ensemble piece (which is rare these days), just write a new piece. That suits me better than the "old wine into new bottles" crap that I think will work. Orchestration is challenging work and I'd rather do it to material that really resonates with me instead of trying to bring back the embers of fires long dead.
Especially for that piano quartet. The thing is, as the Bene Gesserit would say, abomination. Even though there is some good music in that thing, there is a lot of stuff that I think would need to be fixed before it ever saw the light of day again.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
|
| |
